Improved Lilywhite Seakale

Crambe maritima Origin: Oregon Improvement status: Cultivar Seeds per packet: ~25 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial One of the finest perennial vegetables for temperate climates. Since ancient times, seakale has been a traditionally harvested wild vegetable of northern and western European coastlines. Evidence of its use stretches at least back to Mesolithic coastal southern Sweden (around 6500 BC). “Crambe” is in fact an ancient Greek word for a type of cabbage though it supersedes the advent of the cabbage by thousands of years. Though seakale differs from the usual cabbage or kale by its perennial habit and form, instead growing in clumps of rosettes of thick succulent leaves close to the ground. It does however share a close genetic affinity to both cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and Radish (Raphanus sativus). Once a popular Victorian kitchen garden delicacy and grown on a huge scale for market, seakale eventually fell into obscurity. In recent years